After a long and mouldering slumber, Michael and Nakea crawl out of their graves just in time for The Unenthusiastic Critic's Fifth Annual Halloween Movie Marathon. And we're beginning this week with Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (1987), starring Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, and Bill Paxton.

We're changing up the formula for this year's horror fest, with a full slate of spooky classics neither of us has seen before. Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow's breakout vampire biker western has been notoriously hard to view in recent years, but it's available on the Criterion Channel this month, so we're seizing the opportunity by the neck.

Join us to see whether Nakea will fall under the seductive trance of a band of grungy Confederate redneck blood-suckers roaming dive bars in the American Southwest. (It seems unlikely, but anything can happen at Halloween.)

Program

00:00: Prologue: from Near Dark 
01:13: Cultural Osmosis: Pre-Viewing Discussion
11:27: Interlude: Original Trailer for Near Dark
13:36 The Verdict: Post-Viewing Discussion
57:21: Outro and Next Week's Movie
59:04: Outtake

Notes and Links

—Movie Reviewed: Near Dark (dir. Kathryn Bigelow, DEG, 1987).
—Links: "Kathryn Bigelow’s 'Near Dark' Is the Greatest Vampire Movie You May Have Never Seen," Benjamin Crabtree, Collider; "Sunlight Through Bullet Holes," Tammy Oler, Slate; "The 50 Best Horror Films From the 1980s," Nick Schager, Slate.
—Find additional episodes, leave a comment, or make a donation to support the podcast at unaffiliatedcritic.com.
—Email us, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. (Suggestions of movies to watch for future episodes are very welcome.)
—Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre" by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

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